The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) are proposing for a total budget of around P4.75 billion for 2026.
DOE specifically proposed for a budget of P3.84 billion for next year while the ERC asked for P906.02 million during a hearing led by the House Committee on Appropriations on Tuesday.
DOE’s proposed budget for 2026 is 24.3 percent higher compared to its 2025 budget of P3.09 billion.
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said that DOE’s eight major programs include the National and Regional Energy Planning, Conventional Energy Development, Renewable Energy Development, Downstream Energy Development, Electric Power Industry Development, Energy Efficiency and Conservation, Alternative Fuels and Technologies, and Electric Vehicle Industry Development.
The DOE also presented that its budget utilization in terms of obligation has steadily improved from a low of 72.31 percent in 2020 to 82.56 percent in 2021, 93.51 percent in 2022, 98.70 percent in 2023 and 95.69 percent in 2024.
As for the ERC, the regulatory body said that its proposed budget for 2026 is 2.7 percent lower compared to 2025’s P930.88 million.
“Our proposed 2026 budget is in fact a slight reduction from our 2025 approved budget owing to a slight reduction in personnel services from P351.44 million to P343.12 million,” ERC chair Francis Saturnino Juan explained.
In terms of budget utilization, Juan said that ERC’s performance slightly improved from 2023’s 62 percent to 2024’s 65.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) reiterated during the same hearing that the government’s target of total electrification before the end of the current administration’s term will need a total funding of P69 billion in order to be achieved.
NEA Administrator Antonio Mariano Almeda, said that so far, of the said amount, around P7.5 billion has bene provided to the agency as funding since 2023.
So far, NEA is expected to receive another P5 billion for 2026 to fund the government’s sitio electrification program for next year but representatives noted that there may be ways to allocate more funding for such project.
Last month, the DOE said that a memorandum of agreement has been signed with five electric cooperatives (ECs) in Luzon and Visayas as the first batch to benefit from electrification projects under the Locally Funded Project – Total Electrification Program (LFP-TEP) for fiscal year 2025.
DOE said then that involved ECs are the Aklan Electric Cooperative, Aurora Electric Cooperative, La Union Electric Cooperative, Quezon II Electric Cooperative, and Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative, wherein energization projects for unserved and underserved barangays, sitios, and households, particularly in far-flung, off-grid, and geographically isolated areas will be rolled out.
The agency said the package covers 1,492 households with a total allocation of P192.8 million, using a mix of on-grid connections and microgrid solutions through a hybrid system technology with renewable energy component, to deliver reliable, least-cost power.
The LFP-TEP 2025 is the DOE’s flagship push to accelerate electrification through government funding and aligning strategies with distribution utilities, ECs, local government units, and other stakeholders.
DOE said that subsequent batches of LFP-TEP projects will be rolled out throughout the year but has not provided further details.
Last July, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said during his State of the Nation Address that the government will pursue the electrification of three million households in the country that remain not serviced with electricity.
Marcos Jr. said then that among areas where most of these new electricity connections will come from include Quezon Province, Camarines Norte, Palawan, Masbate, Samar, Negros Occidental and Zamboanga del Sur.
